The ghost of Eastfield Mall and the promise of its property’s future hovered over the Springfield City Council on June 2. The administration presented the Council with a District Improvement Financing (DIF) plan to help pay for infrastructure around the site of what will be Springfield Crossing.
Although only the City Council and School Committee are on the ballot this year, Springfield’s midterm elections had been shaping up into a competitive affair. However, no at-large Councilor is retiring and the odds of defenestrating an at-large incumbent are daunting. That may have changed on Friday. Former at-large City Councilor Justin Hurst pulled papers on Friday to reclaim a citywide seat on the Council.
Republicans in the United State House of Representatives jammed through their budget and spending bill this week. Given their rank in the Democratic caucus, both reps for Western Massachusetts featured prominently in the debate.
The federal government has confirmed its cancellation of a $20 million environmental grant to the city of Springfield, but officials are not giving in. There is a formal, administrative appeal process. When city officials learned of the grant’s cancellation, it said it was considering all options. Since then, the city has been in touch with the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. That could add some firepower to Springfield’s response.
This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.
SPRINGFIELD—Residents of the city and state officials agree something must replace the aging and possibly dangerous Hampden County Courthouse. Yet, they aligned on little else during a nearly two-hour meeting at City Hall. Ward 7 Councilor Timothy Allen, who chairs the City Council’s Finance Committee, convened the meeting to provide residents with another opportunity to hear from state officials and provide feedback.
The Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance (DCAMM) is moving forward with a new courthouse secured via a lease.
Last fall, when we endorsed the Democratic ticket, we warned that Donald Trump sought to target the enemy within. To us, that plainly meant “Americans. Your friends, your neighbors, critics, journalists, indeed, your editor-in-chief.” Three months in, we have seen his will, if not always the power, to execute that prerogative and endanger the Constitutional rights all in this nation possess.
SOUTH HADLEY—Despite a life of activism in politics, State Senator Jake Oliveira’s state electoral career only just began. However, his sophomore term in Beacon Hill’s upper house will differ from his previous two in the legislature.
Last Monday, the Springfield City Councilors chewed over an unusual batch of appointments to the Water & Sewer Commission: all of them. Before the body at its regular meeting were confirmations for all three members of the body.
SOUTH HADLEY—Western Mass joined Saturday’s nationwide protests panning the dismantling of government, the Constitution and now the economy under Donald Trump and his ostensible vizier Elon Musk. Layoffs at federal agencies, including at Social Security, has raised public anger, provoking one of the largest rounds of demonstrations since Inauguration Day.